Library filed under Zoning/Planning from Illinois

If the committee approves the proposed changes, the ordinance would advance to the zoning board of appeals and planning commission, and those two panels would then vote on whether to concur with the recommended changes before the full county board would take its own vote to approve the revised ordinance.

The Knox County Board’s Assessor and Zoning Committee voted during its meeting to forward conditional use permits for two temporary meteorological towers for the wind farm to the full Knox County Board. ...Oakland-based Orion Renewable Energy aims to bring the 300-megawatt wind farm to the county.

The DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Committee passed several more elements of the ordinance draft during its special meeting. Those new components passed require no radio frequency and electromagnetic field interference as a result of wind turbines, a zero-tolerance policy for shadow flicker and flash, and sound level regulations including a maximum allowable level of 30 decibels from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and 35 decibels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

NEWMAN — Developers of a wind farm in Douglas County expect to apply for a county permit by the end of summer to begin construction early next year on a 200-megawatt wind project that could be operational by the end of 2019.

Plans for a wind farm ran into a big problem Monday night after the township voted to ...set stricter rules for wind farms. Tuesday night, township residents voted 86 yes - 57 no to creating a zoning ordinance which would create new rules for their land.

DeKalb County Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski Jr. said the moratorium to come up with a wind farm ordinance still is in effect through September. That comes after the County Board approved a solar farm ordinance that went into effect last month. Pietrowski said the board is still in the research process for the wind farm ordinance, and there is no draft of the ordinance yet.

The DeWitt County Board's decisions Thursday night to expand the setback around wind farm turbine towers but not limit their height pleased a developer proposing such a project but left some residents unhappy.

She was among about 70 people who attended the meeting of the ZBA, which recommended limiting the height of any tower to 499 feet ...also called for requiring a minimum distance of 2,000 feet between a tower and the nearest house. The current ordinance requires a setback of 1,500 feet.

Wind energy has been a contentious subject in Livingston County since Invenergy first filed an application to build a wind farm near Fairbury in 2014. While setbacks were increased countywide after the County Board acted on results from the 2016 general election referendum, the possibility of more wind turbines coming to the area, especially in the northeastern townships, remains an open question.

The 120-day moratorium that was approved in October was set to expire soon. At the insistence of board member Tim Nuss of rural Roberts, the ban will not be lifted until the board approves a revised ordinance regulating wind farms.

For the second time in a month, the Ford County Board voted Monday night to place a moratorium on granting any future wind farm permits until the county’s permitting ordinance is reviewed. Last month’s vote was taken without the specific action listed on the agenda for the meeting, so it was deemed invalid. But this time, the measure is legally binding.

Steve Faivre (D-4), Planning and Zoning committee chairman, said the moratorium applies to the wind turbines themselves, as well as solar panels used to generate commercial energy, not the testing towers. "The testing just gives EDF the information as to whether or not it would be commercially viable to do that from a wind standpoint," Faivre said.

The DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Committee agreed Wednesday to hold a second public hearing on whether to build two 200-foot-tall wind testing towers after the first hearing was criticized for being held in too small a venue and not giving enough public notice. ...The moratorium is expected to be heard at the next County Board meeting March 15.

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